There are a number of swim aid flotation devices on the market generally known as pull buoys. AH of these current devices supplement flotation of the swimmer's body and generally immobilize the legs while allowing development of the arm portion of the swim stroke. The most commercially common of these are the pull buoys related to U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,704, and other buoy products that generally have a top flotation cylinder and bottom flotation cylinder connected by cords or straps. Similar swim aids are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,793,549 and 4,929,205, and have air/water buoyancy adjustment features.
Other swim aids are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,083,067 and 4,362,518, and are comprised of a single unit form with a joining section of reduced thickness that is in the shape of and doubles as a kick board.
All of these current devices require the squeezing of the swimmer's legs to hold the devices in place, thus mostly immobilizing the legs and prevent scissor leg kicking motion. This is a significant disadvantage of the aforementioned prior art devices.
The flotation device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,322 allows scissor leg kicking motion, however ft has a “U” shaped configuration that clamps to the swimmer's mid-torso and is connected by a fixed damping bar type member, and is generally designed for kicking in place while the swimmer's body is floating in a vertical position or connected to a fixed cord. There is a swim aid training device shown in now U.S. Pat. No. 7,169,000 that is generally in a rotated and one piece H shape that provides flotation by attaching to the lower calf area of a swimmer's legs thus immobilizing the swimmer's legs and preventing a scissor kicking motion.
A multi-purpose float is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,505, which has a kick board type device with a turning bar that straddles the legs, but does not hold the device on the swimmer thus requiring the squeezing and immobilization of the legs for kicking. Finally, there are other flotation devices on the market that attach by wrapping around the individual legs or lower torso of the swimmer allowing free motion of the legs, but are unrelated to the improvements provided by the present invention.
Generally, the prior art concentrates on providing buoyancy to the swimmer while immobilizing the swimmer's legs so that the swimmer can concentrate on developing the arm stroke. None of the prior art pull buoys allows for the alternating scissor kicking motion of the legs while wearing the invention in the preferred upper leg position.